New Poll Question – Which Is The Best Smart Phone?

iPhone pretty much says it all.

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I like WinMo too. But you know that John owns an iPhone and he'll bend that to his liking.

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I had a WinMo 5 phone for a couple of years and while I appreciate the robustness compared to a non-smartphone, it was a clunky interface at best. I'm trying to remain optimistic for what WinMo 6.5 and WinMo 7 can bring though.

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It's also kind of sad that though the poll is a good one (but missing WinMo), that most pollers will simply vote for what John votes for, as history has shown.

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I have to agree. Of the "smart phone" operating systems Windows Mobile is the most flexible and capable. It currently suffers from having multiple manufacturers and its UI isn't as flashy. Unlike the other systems (excluding Android) its actually a system with true capabilities.

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Thanks Shawn. The iPhone definitely shook up the market, but it wasn't really "years ahead of its time." It was still missing many of the "basic" features that other smartphones already had, but the UI design and other elements made it a real game-changer. Whether you like the iPhone or not, I think it was great for the industry. I also agree that there is a distinct difference between the corporate business-minded user and the casual consumer. Or think about people who work in harsher environments. They'll probably want a rugged phone with PTT. Neither a BlackBerry Bold nor an iPhone would be all that suitable in that environment.

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RIM's core business is business. It's security is so good that government agencies employ Blackberry. They don't fear Apple coming in to their Enterprise Space, but they aren't hanging around doing nothing. The consumer space is foreign to RIM overall and that is their next venture.

Apple OTOH, started with a consumer centric device. They failed with the ROKR because it was a partnership with Motorola, an established manufacturer that had their own ideas of what to do. Apple quickly learned their mistakes and did it their way and this is how the iPhone came about...and it worked.

I do own both devices and apparently I'm a target because I'm not "All iPhone" and I've actually chosen the BB as my everyday work device over the iPhone. I do use my 3G, but it doesn't cut it when you really push it to do work. Frankly, it's frustrating. But when you want to pop on the headphones and just catch up on podcasts and music/videos, it does do that well.

Web Browsing is the only other thing that really sets the two devices apart.The iPhone has the advantage with the WebKit based Browser. RIM has admitted publicly that they need to work on this and it is quickly moving up the list. They do need to move faster. They also need a proper Mac Desktop client.

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The thing I find most hillarious is that RIM became a business product only after they were a kids entertainment product. The Palm 3 by RIM was the end all and be all of the FUN and hip. Eventually RIM discovered that business users had more money and required all the same features that entertainment users required. So they switched over to target business users.

The Blackberry is an excellent Phone + Email device. The iPhone is a great iPod + Crappy Phone. The Palm is a last ditch effort of a dieing company. Samsung & Nokia are meh, who really cares. The Android has alot of potential, that isn't quite there yet.

Quite simply all these phones are ok, but not better than ok. Is there a single device thats the best, absolutely not! At this point every device is an epic fail unless you absolutely need those features. I don't want to carry 6 different devices but nothing is good enough to bother with. Because every device sucks so much I have to carry an iPod, a real phone, and a laptop. Why, because the smart phones suck at doing the single most important part of being a phone, actually being a phone.

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I agree that the Blackberry is good for business. That's what I use mine for.

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Well said. Get the phone you need, but don't preach the faults of the iPhone because it doesn't have a flashlight like your Bold *cough* Stephen Fung *cough* :D

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I'm glad that the iPhone 3G S has an autofocus camera, but it is a little odd that it still lacks flash. I'm sure the engineers/designers in Cupertino can come up with a way to integrate it into the sleek design.

But yes, get the phone that best suits your needs, preferences, and personality. Be happy about its strengths, recognize its weaknesses, and keep your eyes out for what's coming around the corner.

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Having said that, the iPhone does all the iPod things fantastically. Afterall, it is an iPod touch with a phone attached to it. As far as "Phone" goes, it only recently caught up in features to a 5 year old Nokia. But if you want music and videos, and web browsing, the iPhone does that well enough.

At the end of the day, the Blackberry is still the standard in a work phone without equal. It's secure, allows manipulation of your work related documents properly, both editing and viewing, and has multiple ways of doing things so that you can make it work the way you want it to. This is why it is impossible to just "borrow" the device for a few minutes to really get a handle on it.

With a physical keyboard, it allows you to go one handed or two handed in its operation. Because it does have a physical keyboard, touch typing can be achieved easily if you stick with it (just like most of you are doing right now). Again, something that all the physical QWERTY phones have as an advantage. And we all know what an advantage touch typing on your keyboard right now is. Wouldn't it be annoying if you had to keep looking at it to type?

Unbeknownst to most, the Blackberry's all sync your iTunes collection and is a very capable media player. Over the iPhone, the newer ones actually have stereo speakers that are QUITE loud so you can listen to that Audio Podcast in the bathroom at a hotel for instance when you DON'T have your iPod dock. In fact, the berries all did Stereo Bluetooth before Apple announced it (or as they would put it, reinvented it) in OS 3.0. So even there, BB's do a lot of what the iPhone can do. But it isn't marketed or hyped like it is on the iPhone. In fact, many things that the Berry does is a surprise because you don't get the white backgrounded commercials to explain it to you.

On the Web side, the Palm Pre is the closest competitor in it's first OS revision. But because the WebOS is based on WebKit (like Safari) and the hardware is similar to the iPhone's, expect optimizations to narrow that gap (WebOS 1.x vs iPhone OS 3.0). Again, according to benchmarks recently posted at Anand, it is only a less than a second behind in some tests.

I use my Blackberry to take care of all work related things, and when I want to take a phone with me (but leave work at home) I take the iPhone 3G sometimes. But if I had to pick one, I'd stick with my Berry simply because it is like the Family SUV: indespensible and reliable vs. my convertible (the iPhone) which is great fun, but life isn't about fun all the time.

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Aww man Stephen. Took me such a long time to just finish reading your reply =P

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The problem is, it takes a lot of prodding to get you to cough up any faults. We only hear the good (not the bad). Like how the flashlight app doesn't actually work and we had to light you with Blackberry flashlights or your face would have been completely black in the video :lol:

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Seems like your essay above made you go crazy and you just responded to yourself. Easy there man! ;)

Don't blame me for the lack of lights, blame John's camera for not having a spotlight. Thanks to RIM for supplying the light, the only useful thing to come out of the Bold/Storm! :P

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Actually, the Canon HF S100 does have a spotlight, and a bright one too! It only turns on when it's required. It wasn't required and those lights from Berries didn't do anything for the video quality.

I'm a fan of Nokia's build quality, but they really need to do something with Symbian so that it's a little more intuitive and, frankly, is more pleasing to the eye. In terms of aesthetics, the iPhone wins. Apple products (almost) always look nice.

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